Down Under (Meta)

Was confident enough to give it a shot, and got it right, but I'll keep looking to see if there's more to the mech.

guessed the answer, now going back to find the path

oh it's under the CAT... i put "he was" together for OREE... i feel complete now! sorry for all the spam comments

i finally see it but i can't seem to find the "S" in sandwich... awesome construction wow

Love the song, totally had to backsolve, amazing construction! You certainly were a man at work!

Well now, that was a Hail Mary! Now to backsolve...

Very clever construction! Remember that song well from my younger days. Saw Brussels and muscles in the clues and then it was off to the races. Serious question -- do you like vegemite? I've tried it once and didn't care for it, but perhaps it's an acquired taste. Anyway, thanks for the puzzle, Ben!

Love the song and love the puzzle! Thanks for the earworm.

Found it after a night's sleep. Very cool!

Fun one. Thanks for the map!

Not a fan of vegemite but I’m a fan of your puzzles! Thanks, Ben!

Count me among the guessers! I will keep trying to finish the solve.

Saw VEGEMITE in the middle and went for it, now I have to see why. I LOVED that song.

fun puzzle! I did guess and had to back-solve though haha

Very fancy stuff, thanks. I think the 'Man' at the beginning of the ALDA clue was my way in. Very familiar with the song, as it was in 7th grade when it came out (though I did look up the lyrics just to be sure). Come to think of it, pretty sure I owned that album. After finding the correct down clues I wasted a little time looking at the acrosses as well, before realizing that the title says 'Down.' Checked first letters, then letters below those, and then fairly quickly got to letters of the words below. The dustMITE also had me thinking of vegemite (as well as the song, obv), so that probably helped spot it. Nice construction!

Ha!

Ha! Okay, haven't worked it all out. ... Acutually I'm a bit confused. "Buying time"=UMS is clearly part of it but there is not U in the final answer. And the word "A" starts two clues.

Oh, well. I'll continue to backsolve and see if I can work out the clues.

So.... MYNA = DAW, GET A TAN = GLOW and ROARS AT = THUNDERS aren't part of it?

Like others, guessed it before finding the mechanism! I did find it though, it's a good one!

Oh, now! I get it! I first got the first letters URAEAPSOCVEMEGE...... and the VEMEG made me think that as I was doing the verse "Buying bread from ..." that the answer had to be vegemite sandwich. I was searching for words by "find in page" and handn't yet noticed the clues where in order of the lyrics; I figured they may be in grid order or something.

I was confused because even though the metanism employs only the first two lines of the verse, the word “I” appears as the first word in the clue for 52D and also appears in the verse of the lyric.

I sneaked in. I don't really deserve to be here. I barely knew the song, Googled the lyrics, saw two eight-letter words, and submitted.

"Solved" because of those DUSTMITES and then went back and really solved! :-) Quite the puzzle you've constructed, Ben! Thanks!

I was so stumped on this and this came to me when I remember I made some comment about Vegemite during the last MEOW. Now to understand the mechanism lol

Clever, Ben! The song always reminds me of MTV (Because I’m old enough to remember back when MTV played music )

I guessed right and then backsolved, but wish I got the solve first - brilliant Ben!

Saw Brussels and Muscles in the clues, and knew something was afoot. Then Buying and Bread, and off to the races. Especially liked the final step. Fun puzzle and great 80's memory.

I wish I could say I came through the front door, but no… I was one who saw “MITE” and thought of vegemite sandwich. I actually had the Brussels clue hightlighted as one of several clues involving a country and a food (“land of hunger” prompted that hypothesis). How that did not make me think of the line from the song I do not know! If I had, I’m sure I would have seen “buying bread” and “muscles” soon enough, and the rest. Great fun!

Very cute!

Good one, Ben! From the beginning I had a hunch that'd be the answer but just couldn't see the metanism without the nudge. I really shoulda had this earlier - I heard Colin Hays perform this song live just a few months ago LOL.

What construction! Great meta.